New Music Sessions
We are going to hold a couple of
music sessions to see how popular they are. Gez and I will
provide the core of the band with different clients and staff
doing a spot. Jon W will hopefully be persuaded to come out
of retirement and Emilia might sing something from the Polish pop
charts.
This could be your chance to shine. Places are limited so please let us know if you would like to come. The first date is 19 March, between 1:00 and 2:30 and will have an Irish theme to celebrate St Patrick's Day. If the sessions work, we can try to move them around so that different clients get the chance to attend.
Due to lack of space this is only open to clients and their support workers. Cheryl Cole got in touch and said she would like to make a guest appearance, but I just had to say "I'm sorry Cheryl but there’s no room. Get back to X factor. And by the way your new song's rubbish."
Musical instruments needed
If you've got any instruments you don't need, please let us have them for the music sessions. Percussive instruments are ideal, but anything is welcome
John Drury
Conference Centre
Late news... Grand opening of new Supported Lives office and conference centre!
OK, 'conference centre' is a bit of an exaggeration, and 'grand opening' refers to John Drury unlocking the front door, but we now have some more office and meeting space available at Rebecca House. We have had the formerly derelict 'foreman's house' in the courtyard at Rebecca House renovated and turned into an office for the directors and a meeting room/small conference room.
The conference
room is actually a conservatory, so it's nice and light and
surprisingly spacious. A word of advice however, try not to book
meetings for when when its raining - the pitter-patter on
the plastic roof can be a bit distracting!
There are also drink making facilities and a small toilet.
We are looking forward to hosting all sorts of events in there over the coming years; anything that has no more than 15 people likely to attend!
Next time you are passing come and say hello!
Jon Wright
End Of Life Work
We are hoping to start work soon with people who are in their last year of life. Some of the senior staff have already done the training and some new staff have been appointed to work specifically in this area and will hopefully start doing direct support this month. We wish them and our new clients well. We hope we can develop new ways of working sensitively in this area.
If you are interested in joining us in this area of work, let us know at the office. It's early days yet, but we see this work as a natural development of the work we are already involved with.
John Drury
New Senior
Congratulations to
Claire Scarfe on becoming our new "sessional senior support
worker (children)". Claire is currently studying on the
social work course at Bradford University. You might remember her
better as one of the students recently here on placement, or as
the person who wore pumps when there was a foot of snow outside!
Claire brings a lot of experience to the role and we look forward
to her becoming a valued member of the Supported Lives team.
Welcome!
Jon Wright
A Grand Day Out
Ogden Water
Situated between Keighley and Halifax on the A629,
Ogden Water offers some opportunities for gentle walking, bird
watching and even a chance to see a wind farm close up. The path
around the reservoir is wheelchair accessible. The forest paths
are a bit more demanding, although generally quite even. Seeing
the wind farm up close requires a bit more effort on rougher
terrain.
There's a small visitor centre selling drinks and ice cream and there are also accessible toilets.
Brett
Stress reduction sessions
I am hoping to start running a series of ten stress reduction sessions in the new Supported Lives training room. They will take place over ten weeks, and will be free to all carers who use Supported Lives.
Mindfulness is a process of allowing the mind to notice what is happening on a moment to moment level, and to look at this without getting caught up and 'staying for a chat'. By observing ourselves without judging what is good or bad, right or wrong, we can discover tools to help us deal with difficult, and stressful situations that arise both within and outside of ourselves.
No time has been arranged yet but each session will last no more than one hour, followed by a nice a cup of tea to round proceedings off! If you are interested, give me a call at the office. At first I am interested in gauging if there is sufficient interest.
John Drury
Service Review
Dear Clients
Some of you may have had a call from me or Neil recently to do a quick review of the support you are receiving from Supported Lives. Over the next six months we will be doing more thorough reviews for clients who don't get reviews from another agency. If you feel this would be helpful for you then please contact me.
"I'm really happy with all our support workers, they plan things with my son each week he always enjoys what they do"
The feedback so far has been mostly positve, where there have been issues the feedback has been constructive. I have shared some of the positive feedback on this page (Support Workers can try and work out if they are being referred to!) I will include some more feedback in the next B&T.
"Our support worker always spends a lot of time planning activities around our son's interests, he rings a few days before the support session and then often sends photo's through the afterwards"
A few clients have experienced problems with communication and where mistakes have been made on rotas. Supported Lives is currently having a new computer system custom built which will reduce a lot of the paper based work, which is more vulnerable to human error. Once this is fully operational it should iron out these issues
"Thank You!"
Supported Lives takes all of our clients concerns seriously, it helps us reflect on how we operate and look at ways we can improve the running of the organisation (such as the new computer system).
"They go out for dinner, to the pictures, feeding the ducks, baking and bowling, our daughter really enjoys going out with them"
If you experience any problems with Supported Lives that you feel need to be addressed formally please speak to a senior member of staff and tell them you wish to make a complaint. We will look in to the issue thoroughly and then let you know what actions we have taken.
"Our new support worker is great, she is really respectful and we really appreciated the efforts she made to reach us when the weather was bad, it made such a difference"
Equally it's good to hear what we are doing well, if you appreciate efforts made by Supported Lives then please let us know so that we can thank the people involved.
Thanks
Owen
